A Gathering of Gardeners

Monday

Sep 16, 2013 at 11:40 AM

Each year the Monroe County Cooperative Extension brings in two speakers, each presenting two talks. I did not attend last year, but in 2012 Barry Yinger, a plant explorer and owner of Asiatica Nursery and Tovah Martin, horticulturist and author spoke about "Brave New Perennial Gardens" and "The Lawn Liberation Movement".This year the two speakers were Barry Glick, owner of Sunshine Farm and Gardens of West Virginia and Karen Bussolini,?garden photographer and writer.?Barry lectures extensively on perennials, native plants and hellebores. Karen has been the sole photographer for six books, including "The Naturescape Workbook: How to Create a Garden with Nature as Your Guide" and "Elegant Silvers: Striking Plants for Every Garden". Another lure is the number and variety of vendors that bring a wide selection of plants for sale. Still another lure for me was the chance to see an old friend and fellow Rotarian, Susan O’Leary, who is now the Executive Director of the Monroe County Co-operative Extension, the sponsor of the symposium. So on Saturday, I set the alarm, had some breakfast and headed north. Vendors were still setting up their wares. I picked up my registration pack, went into the auditorium and selected a prime seat for the talks. In anticipation of coming, I had emailed two of the vendors regarding plants that I was looking for. Ellen Folts of Amanda’s Garden grows a wide selection of native plants, some of which I do not have. Oriental Supply is a large and expanding nursery offering a wide assortment of plants including Japanese maples. They also have a large assortment of dwarf conifers and it was these that I was interested in. (These may be a subject of a future blog, so please stay tuned.)

At nine the program began and first up was Barry Glick speaking on “Woodland Wonders from the Wild”. Many of the plants he talked about I have, but it was good to hear his take on them as he discussed their names, both common and Latin, medicinal uses, growing conditions, etc. There were a dozen or more plants he discussed, some previously on my wish list and some new ones to be added such as common wood rush, yellow root and the toothworts. Barry was an interesting speaker full of anecdotes and stories of these woodland wonders. Barry brought a selection of his plants with him and I could not resist picking up some hepaticas, Turk’s cap lilies and some polypodium ferns, as did many of the other attendees.

The break gave us time for some coffee or tea, a goodie or two and a chance to view the many offers of the dozen vendors. The second talk of the morning was Karen Bussolini speaking on “Designing with Elegant Silvers” the subject of a book which she co-authored with Jo Ann Gardner. The book is out of print, but she had a half dozen copies for sale. Karen is the author of some half dozen books and a superb photographer with a background as an artist that was readily apparent in her presentation. It was a fascinating talk as Karen dealt with all the varied aspects of silver in plants. She got into it because in her Connecticut garden. She is plagued with deer and they do not eat silver plants. Basically, it is an adaptation and she discussed plants from Lamb’s ears to blue spruce to heucheras. In another selection of slides she ran through the many perennials for sun such as Russian sage and lavender followed by those for shade; pulmonarias, cyclamen, heucheras and of course, Japanese painted ferns. Karen literally discussed all aspects. Gardens using silver-foliaged plants can be spectacular as she so aptly demonstrated and many gardens use them to their full advantage. As for me, I am not great fan of most silver plants, but I fully appreciate gardens that utilize these plants.

After lunch and a chance to purchase more plants, it was back into the auditorium to hear Barry talk about Hellebores. I got interested in hellebores when my cousins gave us one as a 20th Anniversary gift. Since then I have acquired a dozen more, using them to fill the back border of a perennial bed. But Barry has an incredible 50,000 hellebores and has been hybridizing them. In his slides he showed us mind-blogging array of hellebore after hellebore showing the wide variation in color, shape and patterns he has achieved. I just had to buy one of his seedlings.

I did not stay for Karen’s second talk that was on edible gardening as we had the concert featuring the Vanguard Garden Orchestra that evening.

Each year the Monroe County Cooperative Extension brings in two speakers, each presenting two talks. I did not attend last year, but in 2012 Barry Yinger, a plant explorer and owner of Asiatica Nursery and Tovah Martin, horticulturist and author spoke about "Brave New Perennial Gardens" and "The Lawn Liberation Movement".
This year the two speakers were Barry Glick, owner of Sunshine Farm and Gardens of West Virginia and Karen Bussolini,?garden photographer and writer.?Barry lectures extensively on perennials, native plants and hellebores. Karen has been the sole photographer for six books, including "The Naturescape Workbook: How to Create a Garden with Nature as Your Guide" and "Elegant Silvers: Striking Plants for Every Garden". Another lure is the number and variety of vendors that bring a wide selection of plants for sale. Still another lure for me was the chance to see an old friend and fellow Rotarian, Susan O’Leary, who is now the Executive Director of the Monroe County Co-operative Extension, the sponsor of the symposium.
So on Saturday, I set the alarm, had some breakfast and headed north. Vendors were still setting up their wares. I picked up my registration pack, went into the auditorium and selected a prime seat for the talks. In anticipation of coming, I had emailed two of the vendors regarding plants that I was looking for. Ellen Folts of Amanda’s Garden grows a wide selection of native plants, some of which I do not have. Oriental Supply is a large and expanding nursery offering a wide assortment of plants including Japanese maples. They also have a large assortment of dwarf conifers and it was these that I was interested in. (These may be a subject of a future blog, so please stay tuned.)
At nine the program began and first up was Barry Glick speaking on “Woodland Wonders from the Wild”. Many of the plants he talked about I have, but it was good to hear his take on them as he discussed their names, both common and Latin, medicinal uses, growing conditions, etc. There were a dozen or more plants he discussed, some previously on my wish list and some new ones to be added such as common wood rush, yellow root and the toothworts. Barry was an interesting speaker full of anecdotes and stories of these woodland wonders. Barry brought a selection of his plants with him and I could not resist picking up some hepaticas, Turk’s cap lilies and some polypodium ferns, as did many of the other attendees.
The break gave us time for some coffee or tea, a goodie or two and a chance to view the many offers of the dozen vendors. The second talk of the morning was Karen Bussolini speaking on “Designing with Elegant Silvers” the subject of a book which she co-authored with Jo Ann Gardner. The book is out of print, but she had a half dozen copies for sale. Karen is the author of some half dozen books and a superb photographer with a background as an artist that was readily apparent in her presentation. It was a fascinating talk as Karen dealt with all the varied aspects of silver in plants. She got into it because in her Connecticut garden. She is plagued with deer and they do not eat silver plants. Basically, it is an adaptation and she discussed plants from Lamb’s ears to blue spruce to heucheras. In another selection of slides she ran through the many perennials for sun such as Russian sage and lavender followed by those for shade; pulmonarias, cyclamen, heucheras and of course, Japanese painted ferns. Karen literally discussed all aspects. Gardens using silver-foliaged plants can be spectacular as she so aptly demonstrated and many gardens use them to their full advantage. As for me, I am not great fan of most silver plants, but I fully appreciate gardens that utilize these plants.
After lunch and a chance to purchase more plants, it was back into the auditorium to hear Barry talk about Hellebores. I got interested in hellebores when my cousins gave us one as a 20th Anniversary gift. Since then I have acquired a dozen more, using them to fill the back border of a perennial bed. But Barry has an incredible 50,000 hellebores and has been hybridizing them. In his slides he showed us mind-blogging array of hellebore after hellebore showing the wide variation in color, shape and patterns he has achieved. I just had to buy one of his seedlings.
I did not stay for Karen’s second talk that was on edible gardening as we had the concert featuring the Vanguard Garden Orchestra that evening.